THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



129 



of adulteration does not reach the general 

 public, hence can do no harm — nor good — 

 in that direction, but these garbled reports 

 of " resolutions," appearing in the dailies of 

 large cities are read by consumers, and often 

 reach as many people as all of the readers of 

 the bee journals combiii«>d and then multi- 

 plied by five. Besides, articles appearing in 

 this class of papers are likely to be copied 

 far and wide. 



When attending a bee-keepers' convention 

 held May G, at Ionia, Mich., Mr. Harm 

 Smith told me that upon learning that a can 

 of adulterated honey had been sent a grocer 

 of his town, he went to him and said, " The 

 first pound of that stuff you sell, I'll prose- 

 cute you." The "stuff" went back to the 

 mixer. There was no blow nor bluster — 

 no publishing of the matter in the papers. It 

 was a case of " silent influence." 



This holding up of the hands in holy hor- 

 ror, and exhausting the vocabulary in de- 

 nouncing the " vile adulterators," may have 

 a very righteous sound, but it doesn''t stop 

 adulteration. Adulteration will cease only 

 when it is no longer profitable : but it would 

 be greatly lessened if those who practice it 

 could be detected and punished. 



I have little faith in teaching consumers 

 to discriminate between pure and adulterated 

 honey. We cannot tell them to buy only 

 granulated honey, as pure honey does not 

 always granulate, and glucosed honey often 

 does. Neither do I believe that it would 

 help matters much to advise the purchase of 

 only such honey as bears the name of the 

 producer. In the first place, it will be 

 well nigh impossible to convince people 

 that bee-keepers are more honest than other 

 folks. In the next place, injustice would be 

 done honest dealers. Who of us would be- 

 lieve that Chas. F. Muth would adulterate 

 honey ? I will say this much, however, that 

 the public might be told to view with suspi- 

 cion all honey put up in retail packages 

 without any name or address whatever, ei- 

 ther as producer or dealer. With the present 

 condition of things, I know of no better plan 

 than that of each bee-keeper, or dealer, mark- 

 ing his goods and then establishing u reputa- 

 tion for them. 



There are many arguments brought up by 

 correspondents, to which I would gladly re- 

 ply, in fact, I feel as thcnigh I could write all 

 day upon the subject and then leave unsaid 

 much that I would like to say, but lack of 

 space prevents, and, as this subject proves to 



be broader than I anticipated, I think best 

 to devote another num ber to its discussion. 

 If the Review can be instrumental in 

 helping to rid bee-keepers of the evils aris- 

 ing from adulteration, it will have done an 

 act of which it may well be proud ; and if 

 there are any who can help in the matter, 

 let them not hesitate to write, even if they 

 have written before. If there is little more to 

 say, then there will be room in the June 

 Rbview to give some valuable correspond- 

 ence, upon a variety of topics, that has been 

 crowded out for some time. 



EXXRT^OTED. 



Secretion of Wax. 



"Wax scales are found, plenty of them, 

 wasted on the bottom boards, when a swarm 

 is hived in an empty hive without founda- 

 tion or comb. Few or no wax scales are 

 found on the bottom-board of a colony run 

 for extracted honey, if they have abundance 

 of empty combs. The case should be exact- 

 ly reversed, if bees secrete wax whether need- 

 ed or not." — C C. Miller in Gleanings. 



Bro. Miller, the explanation is just this: A 

 swarm always goes with a lot of wax scales 

 already protruding from the wax pockets. 

 Not only this, but the sack of every bee is 

 filled with honey. It seems as though the 

 bees intended to carry all the material possi- 

 ble with which to furnish a new home. 

 When there is no comb nor foundation in 

 the hive, then wax scales "get ripe" if the 

 expression is allowable, and drop to the 

 bottom of the hives, before there is opportu- 

 nity to use them. If the bees are hived upon 

 combs, the scales are stuck upon the combs. 

 Didn't you ever notice how white the mouths 

 of the cells of an old black comb appeared 

 soon after bees had been hived upon it? 

 This comes from the scales of wax that have 

 been stuck on it, for a lack of somewhere else 

 to put them. 



Oar Bees are big Enough. 



Every little while somebody starts the in- 

 quiry if it would not be an advantage to 

 have larger bees; those that could carry 

 bigger loads, fly farther and faster, and 

 forage on red clover. It has been suggested 

 that comb foundation be used having cells a 

 trifle larger that those of natural comb, in 

 order that the bees may have more room to 

 grow. This matter of develvoping a larger 

 bee is now "up" iu the Api. This whole 

 question has been so thoroughly, soundly 



